Mountain of garbage: Litter piling up on Mount Fuji

[Foxy Brown]

If you look up from the forests at the foot of Japan's Mount Fuji, the volcano's graceful slopes rise into the distance and peak in a nearly symmetrical, snowcapped cone.

If you look down in the forests, however, you see something much less elegant: trash. Lots of it. Just below the surface of leaves and topsoil are discarded microwave ovens, construction debris, broken office furniture. Even rusting refrigerators.

Mount Fuji, the pride of the nation and symbol of the Japanese soul, is a huge garbage dump.

[nop]

Society create problems, men must solve problem.  Japanese volunteer spent considerable time cleaning up Fuji already. If the illegal dumping stops, things will improve.

[schol3s]

i always thought it was very clean there....
you know..... tourists attraction....

[blp]

The reason this happens is that people are charged for throwing away certain kinds of rubbish in Japan. Electrical appliances are expecially expensive to throw out.  For example, a person I know was charged 8000 yen (approx US$80) for throwing out an old microwave, TV, and stereo speakers.

So instead of having the rubbish collected and disposed of properly by the city government, many people dump stuff illegaly to avoid the disposal fees.